Grief and Bereavement Counseling in Virginia Beach, Virginia: Incorporating EMDR, After-Death Communication, EFT, Art Therapy, and Ego State Work for Lasting Change

Aligning Intuition and Clinical Skills with your Spiritual Beliefs to Navigate the Relationship Beyond the Physical 

Grief is a natural response to loss, whether through actual death or perhaps mourning a relationship you've released. As Megan Devine says, It's Ok That You're Not Ok (https://refugeingrief.com)

• Socially and culturally, we struggle to support each other effectively in the grief process. Grief can create isolation. 
• Physiologically, our body may ache and lag. We may come to know that the part of us that existed before the loss has "died," as well. 

Our grief work together will navigate meaning-making and a reverence for the new relationship beyond the physical life we shared together. This meaning-making honors the bonds formed and helps to weave the loss into lived experience.  This can involve exploring things left unsaid and the doubt that can follow, and where clinically appropriate, may incorporate communication with your loved one and understanding how they are present in your life today. Together we will integrate the experience into one of reverence and empowerment. 

My integrated approach serves as a bridge between intuitive and felt sense and clinical skills: 

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) 

• EMDR can be particularly effective for grief, even when the loss was expected. Death and loss can activate and unearth old beliefs that feel real, such as "I am alone." 
• I hold advanced EMDR training in ADC (After Death Communication) protocol to support relationship connection and repair beyond death

EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) 

• EFT supports the relational dimensions of grief, including how loss strains or reshapes our closest bonds. EFT helps us connect with the deeper emotions and give those parts of us a voice. Honoring these emotions creates peace. 

Art Therapy

• As a Registered Art Therapist (ATR), I may incorporate Art Therapy approaches including photo therapy, which can be especially supportive in the acute early stage when words and meaning-making are hard and grief is primarily felt in the body. 

Ego State (Parts) Work

• Ego State work (also known as "parts work") offers a way to understand and tend to the aspects of us that are carrying the loss, including the part that existed before it, and may feel lost itself.

Grief is a normal part of this physical living, and through counseling, you are invited to transform experience. We can hold the heavy parts along with hopefulness. 

How to Grieve for a Complicated or Complex Relationship

Grief is a shape-shifter and shows up in unique ways for each loss. 

Whether sudden or anticipated, recent or long-carried, grief for a person we love can surface in ways that feel surprising, isolating, or physically overwhelming. When that relationship was rocky or we were left with unanswered questions, grief can feel especially heavy.

Miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, failed IVF, and pregnancy termination each carry a grief that is often invisible to others and complicated by the absence of social rituals that acknowledge and honor the loss. Pregnancy and infant loss involves layered emotions and often brings up core beliefs of responsibility ("I should have done something," or "I did something wrong"), emotions of shame or guilt, and the experience of feeling alone in your grief.

The death of a beloved animal is a profound loss that is unfortunately frequently minimized by others.  For many people, their companion animal was their most consistent source of comfort, care, and unconditional presence. Pet loss deserves to be tended to with care.

 When you’re supporting someone through a terminal illness, watching cognitive decline, or facing an ending you can see coming, anticipatory grief creeps in. Bracing for impact, surges of anxiety, and an increased sense of urgency while navigating inertia are all part of the experience. 

Ambiguous and complicated grief can be among the hardest to find resolution and closure for because it calls into question our own identity, experience, and beliefs. There may be few trusted people to whom we can even speak about the pain. 

Pet Loss Grief Counseling in Virginia Beach

Losing an animal companion is complex and often misunderstood. The relationship with our companion animals is multi-faceted, but even the well-meaning people in our life may speak of our pets as though the relationship were interchangeable with "another one." It isn’t. If you’ve lost a pet and find that the grief is affecting your daily life, your ability to function, or your sense of meaning, counseling can help. We can explore the full meaning and complexity of your bond without minimizing it, and work toward an integration that honors who they were and who they were to you.

As an additional resource, FETCH A Cure offers a donation-based Pet Loss Support Group for those seeking community support alongside or independent of individual counseling.

What to Expect in Grief Counseling

Sessions are tailored to where you are not where anyone believes you “should” be. I see some clients for whom words and meaning-making are especially hard and grief is primarily felt in the body. I also see clients for whom grief resurfaces unexpectedly, perhaps in a more complex presentation, years after a loss. The CORE EMDR/After Death Communication (ADC) protocol helps relieve the sadness and reconcile memories. That said: Grief arrives in its own time. All are welcome

Is Grief Counseling Right for You?

Grief itself is a normal part of living. Traumatic loss, sudden abandonment, and generational trauma that is left unresolved by a family member's passing are all effectively addressed by the ADC EMDR protocol. Results are, by nature, not predictable, but clients report increased calm, positive coping, and peaceful, adaptive reconsolidation of experience.

I offer a free 15-minute consultation so we can talk about what you’re experiencing and whether working together feels like a good fit. Message me through the contact form; I'm happy to help you identify the next right step.